1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and a method for controlling an information processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
For the purpose of environmental protection, the consumption of large amounts of electric power in electronic devices is restricted. To this end, an information processing apparatus can be configured to operate in a power saving mode, according to which electric power supply to each module (such as a storage unit) of the apparatus can be selectively stopped if necessary.
For example, in order to reduce the consumption amount of electric power, it maybe relatively simple to restrictively supply electric power to each module only when the electric power supply is necessary. However, the storage unit may tend to become damaged if the number of ON/OFF times increases. Therefore, if users frequently repeat the ON/OFF operation, a storage unit may be damaged at an earlier time compared to an expected product lifetime of an information processing apparatus that incorporates the storage unit. As a result, the information processing apparatus may fail to operate normally before the product lifetime expires. The number of ON/OFF times of a storage unit is a number of times assured for the storage unit, until which the electric power supply to the storage unit can be safely increased or decreased without causing any failure in the storage unit. The product lifetime of an information processing apparatus is an operation time assured for the information processing apparatus, during which the information processing apparatus can operate without failure.
An information processing apparatus can also set a standby time beforehand and, if the processing of a job that involves activation of a storage unit is completed, it may be useful to wait for a while (i.e., the standby time) before stopping electric power supplied to the storage unit.
In general, the standby time of a storage unit can be calculated based on a product lifetime of an information processing apparatus and the number of ON/OFF times assured for the storage unit. As discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-186426, the standby time may be obtained by dividing the product lifetime of the apparatus by the number of ON/OFF times assured for the storage unit. In this case, the apparatus is controlled to continuously supply electric power to the storage unit until the standby time has elapsed.
However, the system discussed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-186426 may not be able to easily stop electric power supplied to the storage unit, even though the system may be able to prevent the number of ON/OFF times of the storage unit from exceeding a predetermined value before the product lifetime of the apparatus expires. The number of ON/OFF times of a storage unit is a number of times assured for the storage unit, until which the electric power supply to the storage unit can be safely increased or decreased without causing any failure in the storage unit.